"
A report from the Detroit News Monday suggested that without government aid, the city of Detroit will be forced to close down nearly half of the city’s public schools in the next two years. Additionally, the paper warns that average high school class sizes will swell to 62 students by the following year.
These startling statistics were laid out in a deficit-reduction plan filed with the state of Michigan by the city’s Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb. Bobb’s role is working to slash the $327 million deficit the Detroit school district has accrued over the years.
According to the Detroit News, Detroit Public Schools considered filing for bankruptcy in 2009 but declined. In the past year alone, debt in the district has increased by more than $100 million, brought on by a “mix of revenue declines in property taxes, reduced state aid, declining enrollment and an unplanned staffing surge this past fall.”
While Bobb and DPS administrators have a lot to account for, noticeably absent from the discussion is the role of the teachers unions.
As students suffer amidst increasing classroom sizes and declining school choices, the district’s teachers stand to earn higher salaries. The city’s contract with the Detroit Federation of Teachers requires payments for teachers whose class sizes exceed specified maximums. So while Bobb demands increased class sizes to save the district money, the district is simultaneously estimating the move will create $10 million in additional costs to pay teachers’ oversize class pay over the next four years alone.
The Wall Street Journal notes the city’s decaying public school system:
“Additional savings of approximately $12.4 million can be achieved from school closures if the District simply abandons the closed buildings,” the proposal explains, purging costs like boarding up buildings, storage and security patrols.
Steven Wasko, a spokesman for Mr. Bobb, said that urban property sales have been difficult, in part because until recently the state board of education banned transactions with “competing educational institutions” like charter schools. Once buildings are deserted, even if the doors and windows are welded shut with protective metal covers, scavengers break in and dismantle them for copper wire, pipes and so on.
Under the emergency plan, consolidated high-school class sizes would increase to 62 by 2014, “consistent with what students would expect in large university settings.” Yet under the terms of the Detroit Federation of Teachers contract, the district must pay bonuses for class enrollment over 35, thus imposing some $11.1 million in new costs through 2014.
Note that this dispensation carries about the same price tag as the school abandonment windfall: In other words, Detroit may end up destroying serviceable capital assets so it can pay its public workers more over the short term.
Mr. Wasko cautions that the school closure plan is a last resort, and Mr. Bobb has floated other ideas, including a financial restructuring similar to the GM bailout/bankruptcy. Detroit Federation of Teachers president Keith Johnson rejected even that because “The children of Detroit are not consumed products of a profit-driven corporation like a car,” as he wrote in an op-ed this week. Maybe his real objection is that the GM model might allow the district to rationalize its labor liabilities.
"The budget gap is party due to the property tax revenue collapse as the Motor City crumbles, as well as financial mismanagement and a surge in pay and benefits for public employees. The Mackinac Center, a state think tank, reports that average Michigan teacher salaries outpaced those of all other states from 2003 to 2009, when adjusted for state per capita income as a proxy for the local ability to pay.
It’s hard to think of a sadder commentary on a government so fiscally desperate and so captured by its workers that it may be forced to abandon property to thieves. But are they the scavengers or the union?
A widely reprinted AP story, based on a recent AP/GfK poll, is entitled, 'Opposition to health care law eases.' Don't believe it. What has eased isn't the level of opposition to Obamacare, but rather the level of effort that AP/GfK has made to ensure that its polling sample is representative of American voters.
"
Residents Bob Lee, left, and Rick Schaeffer walk in flooded waters to secure a van and prevent it from going into a river in Silverado Canyon, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010. Storm runoff and mud has prompted the evacuation of about 30 people in the area. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo)
Scientists have issued an ominous warning for the golden state: build your arks now because a biblical “ARkStorm” is heading your way.
Among their predictions, the Daily Mail reports, are walls of 10-foot high water, rain falling in feet instead of inches and millions of homes caught up in floods during a hurricane-like “megastorm” that could last more than a month.
"The every-other-century event last happened in 1861 and left the central valley of California impassable. The cost was impossible to quantify – but should a similar event happen today the damage could total more than $300billion.
The U.S. Geological Survey has now begun planning for the return of the ARkStorm, so named after the boat Noah used to escape the flood in the Bible. The capped-up ‘A’ and ‘R’ stand for ‘atmospheric river’.
They have recruited 17 researchers and a string of agencies to work with local emergency crews and government officials across California to ensure that should it arrive, they would be best prepared for it. The team says that a storm on the scale of that which struck in 1861 is ‘inevitable’ and it was widely considered the worst and longest on record.
USGS chief ARkStorm scientist Lucy Jones said the weather system will start in the Tropics due to atmospheric rivers of moisture forming, grow larger and gain speed as it travels to the West coast of America where it would become roughly the same strength as a hurricane.
It would take some weeks to form, which would hopefully give them time to better prepare when it arrived.
‘We think this event happens once every 100 or 200 years or so, which puts it in the same category as our big San Andreas earthquakes,’ she said. ‘Floods are as much a part of our lives in California as earthquakes are. We are probably not going to be able to handle the biggest ones.’
According to Rev. Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr.’s ultimate dream was not just equality of the races, but also apparently more gun control, universal health care, guaranteed employment, and on and on…
h/t Greg Hengler
"
Two new polls show declining support for fully repealing Obamacare. Does this mean the GOP, on the verge of passing a bill repealing Obamacare in the House, should back down?
Not so, say GOP pollsters, who argue that the poll questions are poorly worded and that the demographic samples include a disproportionate number of Democrats.
Take the AP poll, which shows that 40 percent of adults support Obamacare and 41 percent oppose it. In November, the last time the AP polled this question, 38 percent supported Obamacare and 47 percent opposed it. But the sample in November was very different: 38 percent Republican and 39 percent Democrat. The sample in January wasn’t so balanced, with 42 percent of the responders Democrat and 36 percent Republican.
Even with the skewed demographics, Kellyanne Conway, president of the polling company, inc./WomanTrend, points out that there also remains “a huge difference in intensity,” with 30 percent strongly opposing Obamacare compared to 21 percent strongly supporting it.
Conway also notes that when asked if they would favor a law “that would require every American to have health insurance, or pay money to the government as a penalty if they do not, unless the person is very poor,” 59 percent are opposed. “When they actually hear what the health care reform is, they’re opposed to it,” she says.
The Marist poll finds that 35 percent of registered voters would like Obamacare changed so that it could do more, 13 percent would like it to do less, and 30 percent would prefer the law be fully repealed. But again, the numbers aren’t equal: 35 percent of those polled were Democrat, and 28 percent Republican. Exit polls for the 2010 election found equal numbers of Democrat and Republican voters, both parties represented by about 36 percent of voters respectively.
In addition, a GOP strategist notes that someone who favors buying insurance across state lines or reforming medical malpractice could interpret the Marist poll choices such that he picks the option that he would like Obamacare to do more.
But the pollsters also point out that many voters didn’t just want Obamacare repealed -- they also wanted it replaced with a better system, a distinction that they fear these two polls didn’t adequately address with their word choices. John McLaughlin, CEO of McLaughlin and Associates, notes that when his firm asked voters in November if they would prefer to leave Obamacare as is, or repeal and replace it, 30 percent preferred that Obamacare be left in place, and 60 percent wanted it repealed and replaced.
Pollster Scott Rasmussen says that the GOP shouldn’t interpret these new polls as a signal to slow down their efforts to repeal Obamacare.
“People expect the Republicans to do this. It’s an absolutely essential thing for them,” says Rasmussen. “If they didn’t repeal it, the Republican party would be in deep trouble with their own base.”
“People plainly spoke all through 2010,” agrees Conway. “They expect this new Congress they put there to repeal it. And they expect them to work on something different.”
"
Charlie Gasparino in today’s New York Post:
The municipal-bond market is in crisis, with prices fall ing and investors running for cover — and for good reason.
Munis — bonds sold by states, cities, counties and other localities to finance government operations — are in trouble because the Ponzi scheme of Big Government is coming unglued. The markets are merely reflecting this reality, as they always do.
The $3 trillion muni market was once regarded as the safest of all investments because the bonds are backed by government taxes. Now it’s showing all the earmarks of the 2007-08 meltdown.
That mess began with investors fleeing from bonds tied to the housing market — and ended with the collapse of the financial system. Mortgage-backed bonds were considered super safe because the housing market “always goes up,” and any remaining default risk was covered by “super-sophisticated” securities.
So banks held tons of those securities, earning huge returns on their “risk-free” investments. The feds used Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to keep the market booming by buying up tons of mortgages, leaving the banks with more cash to initiate more mortgages — ensuring that even the riskiest borrowers could play.
As it turned out, the housing-bond market was a Ponzi scheme not all that different than what Bernie Madoff pulled off for so long. Eventually, the cash couldn’t flow in fast enough to keep inflating the bubble. Once the folks who couldn’t afford their mortgages could no longer flip out of the market, the whole thing burst.
The municipal-bond market’s assumption is that cities and states won’t default on their debt because they need to keep selling bonds to build roads and bridges. Investors will keep buying munis because they think the state will always make good on its obligations (and with the added incentive that these bonds are free of state, local and federal taxes).
But suppose taxes are so high that people leave cities or states in droves, depleting the pool of revenue need to pay bondholders? Suppose these states have so many other obligations — from federal mandates, massive “guaranteed” pensions to government workers and more — that they can’t or won’t make the vast cuts needed to keep paying on their bonds?
Read the whole thing here.
Photo: Nigerian officials claim the containers were dispatched by the Qods Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Photo: GETTY
Here's the backstory to some of the recent and not-so-recent stories at Atlas (the media continues to ignore Islamic genocide and religious cleansing of non-Muslims) by Muslim hordes slaughtering Christians in Nigeria (scroll and click on links). Just this past Christmas, five bombs went off in the Nigerian city of Jos as residents were celebrating Christmas Eve, leaving 31 dead, and hundreds wounded.
Iran arms smuggling details to be disclosed Telegraph (hat tip Awa)A trial due to open in Nigeria at the end of the month is set to disclose embarrassing details of an extensive arms smuggling operation run by Iran's Revolutionary Guards to supply guerrillas in West Africa.A key defendant in the trial, which is due to start in Abuja on January 31, is Azim Aghajani, an Iranian national who has been identified by intelligence officials as a senior officer serving in the Qods Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Aghajani faces charges relating to the seizure of a cargo of weapons hidden in 13 shipping containers at the Nigerian port of Apapa, in Lagos, in October.
The weapons, which included rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and assault rifles, had been concealed in a cargo of construction materials and were discovered following a tip-off by the CIA to Nigerian security officials.
Nigerian officials claim the containers were dispatched by the Qods Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the unit responsible for supporting overseas Islamist militant groups.
The Iranians used a French based shipping group to transport the weapons cargo, which was intended for distribution among a number of Islamist militias in Nigeria and other rebel groups in West Africa.
They included the "Hisbah" Islamist militia, which is seeking to impose Sharia law in the north Nigerian province of Kano, and rebel groups fighting for control of Nigeria's lucratic oil revenues in the Nile Delta. Nigerian officials claim some of the weapons were also destined for rebel groups based in Senegal and Gambia.
"This was a sophisticated operation undertaken by Iran's Revolutionary Guards to destabilise a number of governments in West Africa," said a Western security official who has been closely involved in the case. "It is a major diplomatic embarrassment for Tehran at a time when Iran claims it seeks to improve relations with countries in the region."
Two Iranian citizens claiming to be businessmen sought refuge in the Iranian embassy immediately following the seizure of the weapons, sparking a tense diplomatic stand-off between Iran and Nigeria.
Intelligence officials in Nigeria established that the two Iranians were senior officers serving in the Qods Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, who were named as Azim Aghajani and Ali Akbar Tabatabaei, who is described as the commander of Qods Force operations in Africa.
Iran made secret representations to the Nigerian government to allow the arms shipment to be returned to Iran, together with the two Revolutionary Guards officers. When the Nigerians refused Manoucher Mottaki, who was then serving as Iran's Foreign Minister, made an emergency visit to Abuja in November during which he persuaded Nigerian officials to release Tabatabaei, who was allowed to fly back to Tehran on the Foreign Minister's private jet. Tabatabaei is now understood to have been redeployed to Venezuela to oversee Iran's intelligence operations in Latin America.
But the Nigerian authorities insisted that Aghajani must remain in Abuja and face trial on arms smuggling charges.
Prosecution officials predict all the details relating to Iran's involvement in the arms shipment will be revealed during the trial of Aghajani, who was earlier this week granted bail by the trial judge until the end of the month.
Photo: Nigerian officials claim the containers were dispatched by the Qods Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Photo: GETTY
Here's the backstory to some of the recent and not-so-recent stories at Atlas (the media continues to ignore Islamic genocide and religious cleansing of non-Muslims) by Muslim hordes slaughtering Christians in Nigeria (scroll and click on links). Just this past Christmas, five bombs went off in the Nigerian city of Jos as residents were celebrating Christmas Eve, leaving 31 dead, and hundreds wounded.
Iran arms smuggling details to be disclosed Telegraph (hat tip Awa)A trial due to open in Nigeria at the end of the month is set to disclose embarrassing details of an extensive arms smuggling operation run by Iran's Revolutionary Guards to supply guerrillas in West Africa.A key defendant in the trial, which is due to start in Abuja on January 31, is Azim Aghajani, an Iranian national who has been identified by intelligence officials as a senior officer serving in the Qods Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Aghajani faces charges relating to the seizure of a cargo of weapons hidden in 13 shipping containers at the Nigerian port of Apapa, in Lagos, in October.
The weapons, which included rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and assault rifles, had been concealed in a cargo of construction materials and were discovered following a tip-off by the CIA to Nigerian security officials.
Nigerian officials claim the containers were dispatched by the Qods Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the unit responsible for supporting overseas Islamist militant groups.
The Iranians used a French based shipping group to transport the weapons cargo, which was intended for distribution among a number of Islamist militias in Nigeria and other rebel groups in West Africa.
They included the "Hisbah" Islamist militia, which is seeking to impose Sharia law in the north Nigerian province of Kano, and rebel groups fighting for control of Nigeria's lucratic oil revenues in the Nile Delta. Nigerian officials claim some of the weapons were also destined for rebel groups based in Senegal and Gambia.
"This was a sophisticated operation undertaken by Iran's Revolutionary Guards to destabilise a number of governments in West Africa," said a Western security official who has been closely involved in the case. "It is a major diplomatic embarrassment for Tehran at a time when Iran claims it seeks to improve relations with countries in the region."
Two Iranian citizens claiming to be businessmen sought refuge in the Iranian embassy immediately following the seizure of the weapons, sparking a tense diplomatic stand-off between Iran and Nigeria.
Intelligence officials in Nigeria established that the two Iranians were senior officers serving in the Qods Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, who were named as Azim Aghajani and Ali Akbar Tabatabaei, who is described as the commander of Qods Force operations in Africa.
Iran made secret representations to the Nigerian government to allow the arms shipment to be returned to Iran, together with the two Revolutionary Guards officers. When the Nigerians refused Manoucher Mottaki, who was then serving as Iran's Foreign Minister, made an emergency visit to Abuja in November during which he persuaded Nigerian officials to release Tabatabaei, who was allowed to fly back to Tehran on the Foreign Minister's private jet. Tabatabaei is now understood to have been redeployed to Venezuela to oversee Iran's intelligence operations in Latin America.
But the Nigerian authorities insisted that Aghajani must remain in Abuja and face trial on arms smuggling charges.
Prosecution officials predict all the details relating to Iran's involvement in the arms shipment will be revealed during the trial of Aghajani, who was earlier this week granted bail by the trial judge until the end of the month.
Why bother raising the debt ceiling yet again, as the Obamination Administration demands? We're already so deep in debt that there is no chance of digging our way out without severe financial hardship. We may as well admit that there is no ceiling, and get on with the currency devaluation that appears to be our moonbat rulers' only economic strategy.
Compliments of Zappatrust.
"Ahead of a visit to Washington this week, Chinese President Hu Jintao criticized the Federal Reserve for dollar devaluation and called the current international currency system — which features the U.S. dollar — a “product of the past.”
The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post submitted questions to Jintao and received responses to seven of those questions. The responses included critical comments about U.S. economic policy.
From the WSJ:
Mr. Hu also offered a veiled criticism of efforts by the U.S. Federal Reserve to stimulate growth through huge bond purchases to keep down long-term interest rates, a strategy that China has loudly complained about in the past as fueling inflation in emerging economies, including its own. He said that U.S. monetary policy “has a major impact on global liquidity and capital flows and therefore, the liquidity of the U.S. dollar should be kept at a reasonable and stable level.” [...]
Mr. Hu’s veiled criticism of the Fed reflects widespread feelings among developing nations that U.S. interest-rate policy is devaluing the dollar, prompting flows of capital overseas and creating inflation elsewhere. China and other developing countries would like the Fed to factor in those consequences when it makes decisions. Fed officials counter that their mandate is to bolster the U.S. economy and that a stronger U.S. economy is in the interests of China and other countries, which depend heavily on trade and investment from the U.S.
As the dollar loses value internationally, Jintao also took the opportunity to attack the currency’s supremacy in foreign exchange. “The current international currency system is the product of the past,” he told the WSJ.
China’s recent actions solidify that sentiment. At the end of 2010, the country struck a deal with Russia that dismissed the U.S. dollar as the medium of exchange between the two countries.
China’s concerns over the U.S. dollar are understandable. According to the WSJ, China’s holdings of dollar reserves reached $2.85 trillion at the end of 2010.
Global Environment Fund founder and chief executive Jeffrey Leonard (not 1987 National League Championship Series MVP Jeffrey Leonard) wrote in The Washington Post last week:
If Obama wants to set us on a path to a sustainable-energy future – and a green one, too – he should propose a very simple solution to the current mess: eliminate all energy subsidies. Yes, all of them – oil, coal, gas, nuclear, ethanol, and wind and solar.
This is a fabulous idea which we genuinely hope President Obama adopts. Subsidies distort market signals creating complacency and reducing the incentive to innovate. Despite decades of subsidies, alternative energies such as wind and solar power contribute only 1% of our nation’s energy needs. Subsidies for clean coal, oil, nuclear, and natural gas are no different. Energy industries should be freed from all government subsidies.
But conservatives should be on guard because not all energy subsidies come in the form of loopholes, payments, and loan guarantees. Mandates, like the existing ethanol mandate, or the proposed Renewable Electricity Standards are also subsidies. Indeed, later in his op-ed Leonard writes:
Eventually, when the political climate is right, it should impose some form of tariff on carbon and other greenhouse-gas emissions to ensure that the market internalizes the global “costs” of threats to the planet’s life-giving atmosphere.
Cap and trade, or any substitute carbon tax would be a huge and harmful government intervention into the energy sector and should be avoided at all costs. But Leonard does write:
Is eliminating all energy subsidies politically possible? There have always been libertarian elements in the Republican Party that have railed against “corporate welfare,” including the massive tax expenditures that favor oil production. Now they are joined by many Tea Party sympathizers who, appalled by the bailouts of the big banks and automakers, instinctively share the same hostility toward subsidies of big business.
…
So we find ourselves in a political moment when for the first time it is possible to imagine an alliance of GOP libertarians, disaffected environmentalists and budget hawks coming together for a grand deal that would sweep away 60 years of bad energy policy. In the spirit of bipartisanship, Obama should seize the opportunity.
Let’s hope President Obama does.
"Last March, Virginia and Florida (joined by 12 other states) filed suit against Obamacare, challenging its constitutionality. Since that time, many other states have joined in, recognizing the threat posed by the legislation to both the Constitution and their own state budgets. As we reported on Friday, more than half of all states are now suing over Obamacare.
In Friday’s post, several commenters asked for a complete list of the states involved with the various lawsuits, which we have compiled below. The following list contains all 27 states that have started or joined in a lawsuit against Obamacare. Those highlighted gray are in the process of joining a suit or, in the case of Oklahoma, preparing to sue on their own.
| State | Lawsuit Joined | Date Joined |
|---|---|---|
| Virginia | Virginia | March 23, 2010 |
| Florida | Florida | March 23, 2010 |
| South Carolina | Florida | March 23, 2010 |
| Nebraska | Florida | March 23, 2010 |
| Texas | Florida | March 23, 2010 |
| Utah | Florida | March 23, 2010 |
| Louisiana | Florida | March 23, 2010 |
| Alabama | Florida | March 23, 2010 |
| Michigan | Florida | March 23, 2010 |
| Colorado | Florida | March 23, 2010 |
| Pennsylvania | Florida | March 23, 2010 |
| Washington | Florida | March 23, 2010 |
| Idaho | Florida | March 23, 2010 |
| South Dakota | Florida | March 23, 2010 |
| North Dakota | Florida | April 5, 2010 |
| Arizona | Florida | April 6, 2010 |
| Georgia | Florida | April 13, 2010 |
| Alaska | Florida | April 20, 2010 |
| Nevada | Florida | May 14, 2010 |
| Indiana | Florida | May 14, 2010 |
| Mississippi | Florida | May 14, 2010 |
| Wisconsin | Florida | January 3, 2011 |
| Oklahoma | Oklahoma | January 7, 2011 |
| Wyoming | Florida | January 7, 2011 |
| Ohio | Florida | January 11, 2011 |
| Kansas | Florida | January 12, 2011 |
| Maine | Florida | January 12, 2011 |
We already knew that with this administration everything is staged…
…But, someone please tell me the Obama regime is not this manipulative:
Barack Obama’s mood hair in pictures.
Ann Althouse noticed Obama’s mood hair on Saturday:
And what’s the first thing you notice — the difference between today and the speech he gave at the memorial? Right. Different color hair. Gray for the memorial, signifying the wise elder, the father figure. Back to dark hair to signify the vigorous young man, ready to forge ahead, solving problems, and restoring his party’s electoral fortunes.
Reader Dennis O. noticed that Obama was obviously more youthful looking in his Saturday Weekly Address before the Tucson pep rally.
Surely there’s a reasonable explanation for all of this?… Surely there is.
"After the mass slaughter in Tucson last week democrats and the liberal media immediately plotted to blame the shootings on the tea party and Sarah Palin.
But now we know…
The Tucson killer was an anti-Christian, anti-Constitution, left-wing, pro-Marx, antiflag, “quite liberal” lunatic who hated Bush. He had been targeting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords since 2007.
No wonder Obama called off the dogs at his Wednesday pep rally.
Today the Old Gray Lady apologized for blaming conservatives for the mass slaughter in Arizona… sort of.
The New York Times reported:
"…The Times’s day-one coverage in some of its Sunday print editions included a strong focus on the political climate in Arizona and the nation. For some readers — and I share this view to an extent — placing the violence in the broader political context was problematic.
C. Wenk, a reader in Alexandria, Va., criticized “an egregious rush to judgment in the Times coverage of the Arizona shooting, specifically aimed at linking the shooting to various conservative or Republican political rhetoric.”
A second reader, Kevin O’Donnell of Greenbrae, Calif., saw it as a case of The Times jumping too quickly: “I understand the larger point about coarse speech raising the potential for violence. By offering that debate within hours of events, doesn’t The Times risk starting at the conclusion end of the argument?”
The Times had a lot of company, as news organizations, commentators and political figures shouldered into an unruly scrum battling over whether the political environment was to blame. Meanwhile, opportunities were missed to pick up on evidence — quite apparent as early as that first day — that Jared Lee Loughner, who is charged with the shootings, had a mental disorder and might not have been motivated by politics at all.
“If I were a reporter on this story, my very first call would have been to a mental health professional willing to consider the nature of Mr. Loughner’s illness,” Max Etchemendy of East Palo Alto, Calif., wrote. “The ‘political’ angle has been beaten to death, and ‘medical’ angle has been ignored completely.”
So why does a story get framed this way? Journalism educators characterize this kind of framing as a storytelling habit — one of relating new facts to an existing storyline — and also as a reflex of news organizations that are built to handle some topics well, and others less well.
Jerry Ceppos, dean of the journalism school at the University of Nevada, Reno, said journalists’ impulse to quickly impose a frame on a story is “genetic.”
“Journalists developed automatic framing protocols generations ago because of the need to report quickly,” he said. “Today’s hyper-deadlines, requiring journalists to report all day long and all night long, made that genetic disposition even more dominant.”
To be fair, there were some good reasons to steer the coverage initially in this direction. As Rick Berke, the national editor, said: “Our coverage early on was broad and touched everything from the possible shooter to the victims to the reaction to, yes, the political climate in Arizona. By our count, there were 49 stories in the paper the first six days after the tragedy, of which only 14 were political in nature. But it would be ridiculous for us to neglect that. After all, a politician was shot in the head while meeting with constituents. That same lawmaker had her office vandalized during an especially rancorous campaign. And after the shooting the sheriff called his state the capital of hatred and bigotry.”
Still, I think the intense focus on political conflict — not just by The Times — detracted from what has emerged as the salient story line, that of a mentally ill individual with lawful access to a gun.
On Saturday Trent Humphries, the Tucson tea party leader, was threatened with death by far left activist and unimpeachable voice of the left Eric Fuller at a taped ABC town hall meeting in Tucson. Fuller was heard screaming “whores” at the audience as he was dragged from the event and arrested. ABC and Christine Amanpour decided not to show Fuller’s arrest to their Sunday audience. After all, it was just a tea party conservative who was threatened with death.
Fortunately, the arrest was aired by other more credible news organizations.
That wasn’t the first time Fuller found himself in a violent confrontation. On the morning of the Safeway shooting Fuller reportedly was seen arguing with a former Marine. This occurred before Loughner arrived and started his killing spree.
Marilyn Zerull, who ran for office recently in Tucson for the state house of representatives, is familiar with Eric Fuller. She shared with me today her experiences with the far left activist.
Last year between the primary and general elections Fulller was the inspector of elections at the polling station she worked at in both the primary and general elections. First of all, just after the primary, during the training session, Marilyn said she was warned about Fuller. She knew he was confrontational. So she was worried. He acted very bizarre during the training sessions. During the day he would stand up in the middle of room and do leg kicks and karate chops.
One time, during the primary elections, Fuller went outside and started screaming at a woman who was handing out literature beyond the 75 foot limit. He chased her to her car. The woman was very frightened and locked her doors. Eventually, she fled to another station. Fuller also had a run-in with the police that day.
Sometime between the primary and general elections, Al Melvin was holding a town hall. It was pretty civil. Afterwards, Eric Fuller came over and started a confrontation with Marilyn. He just started arguing loudly and spewing the typical leftist talking points. Fuller is always reportedly looking for opportunities to argue with Republicans. It’s what he does.
They worked together again during the general election at the same polling station. Eric Fuller would get up and go play the piano during the day and he talked about how good democratic policies were to the people coming into the polling place.
Marilyn felt Eric Fuller was disturbed and felt it was important for him to stand trial.
Another source and fellow poll worker I spoke with today who wished to remain anonymous also believed that Eric Fuller should stand trial for threatening Trent Humphries.
This weekend far left Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik announced that he was ready to release Eric Fuller after his pyschiatric testing unless Trent Humphries pressed charges. Is this really the right thing to do? Especially after 6 people were gunned down by a madman just days ago?
This morning Trent Humphries released a statement. Fuller is not the only one who has threatened Humphries.
Trent is afraid for his safety and the safety of his family. Fuller is just one of the loons who has threatened him after the Tucson shooting. But, Eric Fuller has a history of violence. He should remain locked up.
As we celebrate Martin Luther King Day, it is fitting to reflect upon the tortured experience of blacks in this country. Looking back upon four centuries of African-American history two things are undeniably clear: for the greatest part of America’s history, blacks were grossly mistreated and the country has come a long, long way since the first slaves were brought to Jamestown in 1619.
Most astounding, in this latter regard, is the seismic shift in popular attitudes regarding blacks since the Civil Rights movement began. It’s hard to believe that Mad Men depicts a world that is less than fifty years removed from us.
Yet for all the progress the country has made—the abolition of slavery, the end of segregation, and the change in hearts and minds—not everyone draws inspiration from this admirable story of overcoming. The persistence of stark socio-economic disparities between black and white Americans, the extraordinarily high incarceration rates of black men, and the desolation in many inner cities have led many to “wallow in the valley of despair,” to borrow a phrase from Dr. King’s most famous speech.
Such despair in turn has fueled a radical critique of America that is increasingly prevalent among scholars and activists who deal with race relations. America, we are told, is founded on a racial contract that excludes all non-white males. As former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall explained: “the prevailing opinion of the Framers regarding the rights of Negroes in America” was, and here he goes on to cite approvingly the infamous Dred Scott decision “that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the Negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit.” From there, it’s a straight line to the conclusion reached by John Hope Franklin, author of the standard history of African Americans, From Slavery to Freedom: “Racial Segregation, discrimination, and degradation… stem logically from the legacy that the Founding Fathers bestowed upon contemporary America.”
While Dr. King reminded us that the country was built on the “promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” leading voices today instead reject the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as racist documents and turn away from the traditional goal of integration. If America is built on a foundation of racist ideas, then no real change is possible within the existing conditions, and the solution to the African-American predicament must lie beyond the country as we know it. America must be fundamentally transformed if the promise of justice for all is to be realized.
This critique of America, which feeds off the despair among impoverished black Americans, is particularly pernicious for fostering an even deeper alienation among those who most need to believe in the American Dream to improve their lot. Indeed, it is very difficult to see how the upward-looking labor required to lift blacks out of endemic urban poverty is to be sustained if those most in need of help have accepted the idea that America has no place for them. This critique will only worsen the problems it refuses to answer.
Today, as we honor Martin Luther King, we have a moral duty to re-affirm the promise of justice for all at the heart of the American Founding and make the case, as forcefully as we can, for the integrationist faith in America. To do so, we turn to a former slave: the great 19th century abolitionist and indefatigable advocate of civic and political equality, Frederick Douglass.
As Peter Myers explains in a new First Principles essay entitled “Frederick Douglass’s America: Race, Justice, and the Promise of the Founding”:
Douglass endures unequalled as the invincible adversary of racial despair and disaffection—the pre-eminent exemplar and apostle of hopefulness in the American promise of justice for all. At the heart of all that he learned and taught were these simple propositions: that the natural-rights principles epitomized in the Declaration of Independence were universally and permanently true; that the everlasting glory of America’s Founding lay in its dedication to those principles; and that the salvation of the nation lay in its rededication to them.
Myers goes on to recount the story of how Douglass, who as a former slave initially sided with the abolitionists of the day in rejecting America and its Constitution “for supporting and perpetuating this monstrous system of injustice and blood,” eventually developed, through a careful study of the Founding, an “irrepressible faith in America.” In America’s dedication to principles of natural human rights set forth in the Declaration of Independence, Douglass found reason to love and identify with his country, despite the injustices that he and his people had suffered.
Douglass’s uplifting journey from alienation to a “rationally grounded hopefulness” should embolden all those of us who believe in America and her dedication—shaky at times, but always eventually triumphant—to the natural equality of men.
Quick Hits:
House Cloakroom Report: January 17-23
After the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Holiday, the House will reconvene tomorrow afternoon for legislative business. The majority of the week will be devoted to legislation repealing Obamacare. The vote, scheduled for Wednesday, will kick off with seven hours of debate on Tuesday, followed by additional seven hours of debate on Wednesday before the final vote will be taken. This comes on the heels of over half of states now suing to stop Obamacare as a continuing number of governors and Americans recognize the damaging impact the legislation will have on their states. Remaining legislative business for the week will include further organizational meetings for formation of the standing committees as well as committee hearings on various issues.
Major Floor Action:
Major Committee Action:
The Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) revoked the permit for one of the nation’s largest mountaintop-removal coal mining projects on Thursday, saying the mine would have done unacceptable damage to rivers, wildlife and communities in West Virginia.
According to The New York Times, Arch Coal’s proposed Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County has been the subject of controversy since the Bush administration approved its construction in 2007, issuing a permit required under the Clean Water Act.
Now the same agency said it was using its authority under the same Clean Water Act to revoke the permit, an action it has taken only 12 times in the past 40 years.
The paper said that when the permit was first approved, environmentalists and local residents strongly opposed the sprawling project. This prompted the Obama administration to rescind the permit. It’s actions were challenged in lawsuits by West Virginia and the coal company.
The agency’s action on Thursday preempted a court decision and provoked an immediate outcry from West Virginia politicians, the coal industry and other businesses that have raised objections to what they consider economically damaging regulatory overreach by the E.P.A.
Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, who until recently was the state’s governor and must run again for the Senate in November of 2012, issued a blistering statement opposing the agency’s determination to kill the mining project. Manchin did not mention President Barack Obama by name, instead limiting his outrage to the E.P.A.
“Today’s E.P.A. decision is not just fundamentally wrong, it is an unprecedented act by the federal government that will cost our state and our nation even more jobs during the worst recession in this country’s history,” Manchin said. “While the E.P.A. decision hurts West Virginia today, it has negative ramifications for every state in our nation, and I strongly urge every senator and every member of Congress to voice their opposition.”
He added, “It goes without saying, such an irresponsible regulatory step is not only a shocking display of overreach, it will have a chilling effect on investments and our economic recovery. I plan to do everything in my power to fight this decision.”
The agency said in a release that it reserved this authority only for “unacceptable cases.”
“The proposed Spruce No. 1 Mine would use destructive and unsustainable mining practices that jeopardize the health of Appalachian communities and clean water on which they depend,” said Peter S. Silva, the agency’s assistant administrator for water. “Coal and coal mining are part of our nation’s energy future, and E.P.A. has worked with companies to design mining operations that adequately protect our nation’s waters. We have a responsibility under the law to protect water quality and safeguard the people who rely on clean water.”
An official of Arch Coal, based in St. Louis, said the company would continue to challenge the federal action in court and warned of the chilling effect this decision would have on all businesses that require an E.P. A. permit.
Kim Link, Arch Coal’s spokeswoman said the decision would hurt the company and future investment by any company that requires the type of permit that was granted by one administration and revoked by another less than three years later.
“Every business possessing or requiring a permit under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act will fear similar overreaching by the E.P.A. It’s a risk many businesses cannot afford to take,” Coal said.
Groups of regulated industries had been anticipating this type of action.
According to the NYT, a group of regulated industries wrote to the White House this week asking that the mine be allowed to proceed, and seeking clarification on when the administration intended to use its Clean Water Act authority to block industrial and agricultural projects.
The letter was signed by representatives of the National Realtors Association, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. They wrote to Nancy Sutley, the chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and said that if the E. P. A. revoked the coal mining permit, “every similarly valid permit held by any entity — businesses, public works agencies and individual citizens — will be in increased regulatory limbo and potentially subject to the same unilateral, after-the-fact revocation.”
“The implications could be staggering,” they added, “reaching all areas of the U.S. economy including but not limited to the agriculture, home building, mining, transportation and energy sectors.”
Who’s ‘In Climate Denial, Again’? The New York Times
